play Live Sign upShow navigation menuplay Live Click here to searchsearchSign upEXPLAINERNews|Armed GroupsMali crisis: Who are the key leaders to know about?As Mali faces its biggest security challenge in years, Al Jazeera profiles leaders from the government as well as armed groups.
xwhatsapp-strokecopylinkgoogleAdd Al Jazeera on GoogleinfoA column of black smoke rises above buildings as vehicles pass by the Africa Tower monument in Bamako, Mali, on April 26, 2026 [AFP]By Shola LawalPublished On 30 Apr 202630 Apr 2026Armed violence has intensified in Mali since Saturday after an al-Qaeda-linked armed group working with separatists attacked several military bases across multiple cities, including areas where senior government officials live, and took control of the northern city of Kidal.
Malian Defence Minister Sadio Camara and his family were killed in their home in Kati, a military garrison close to the capital, Bamako, the government announced on Sunday. Armed groups have announced that they are laying siege to Bamako.
Mali has been beset by security crises since at least 2012. Al-Qaeda-linked Jama’at Nusrat al-Islam wal-Muslimin (JNIM) controls swaths of rural territory, especially in the north and central regions, and has active cells around the capital. Similarly, the ISIL (ISIS) affiliate in Sahel Province (ISSP) controls areas in northeastern Menaka city.
At the same time, armed Tuareg separatists of the Liberation Front for Azawad (FLA) group, fighting for an independent nation called Azawad, also in the north, are clashing with the military and allied Russian mercenaries who have been deployed since 2021. They control Kidal now, along with the JNIM, but they also want Gao, the largest city in the north, Menaka and Timbuktu, to complete the self-declared state of Azawad.
These groups sometimes work together: they operate in the same areas and draw from the same pool of fighters from aggrieved communities. On Saturday, the JNIM worked with the FLA against the army.
But who are the faces behind them? Here is a breakdown of who is who in the Mali crisis:
Russian mercenaries have been fighting alongside the Malian army since 2021. There are about 2,000 Russian fighters in the country at present, with another 400 or so others in neighbouring, military-led Niger and Burkina Faso.
They were initially deployed as members of the Wagner Group. In 2023, Wagner head Yevgeny Prigozhin died, and Russia integrated the group into its Defence Ministry as the Africa Corps, which is also present in the Central African Republic, Libya, and, reportedly, in Sudan. Field commanders are hardly known, with only small details emerging.
Tuareg separatists have been fighting for freedom even before Mali gained independence in 1960. There have been several waves of rebellions since – the 1960s, 90s and 2012. The FLA is the latest iteration of the separatist movements. It was formed in 2024 after previous movements merged.
